"Societatea pentru întreținerea raporturilor culturale" was outlawed in February 1938.During the early stages of World War II, when government in Romania was taken over by the Iron Guard fascist and pro-Nazi Germany movement ("see National Legionary State"), PCR leaders Teohari Georgescu and Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu worked together to reactivate the society, profiting from friendly relations between the new authorities and the Soviet Union; their attempt came to an abrupt end in 1941, when Ion Antonescu's triumph against the Guard provoked a collateral move against communist activists ("see Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom").